Open Thread–3/5/2020

Posted by TomCat at 9:41 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 052020

It’s a busy day, here at the CatBox. Eating is getting easier, since I discovered that pills getting stuck in the tumor were the big problem. I ground them with my mortar and pestle last night, and WWWendy mixed the powder with cottage cheese. YUCK! I’ve eaten better crunchies from my kitty box, but my ham and beans goop over rice went down without issue. This morning I ground them and mixed them with apple juice. They glopped up, but I got them down. Store to Door is delivering groceries this afternoon, so I’ll mix tonight’s grind with apple sauce. I scheduled an initial appointment with my new oncologist, Dr. Evelyn Brosnan on Thursday, March 17. I’ve requested that they release the PET Scan results to me this week, but they may not. Have a great day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:42 (average 8:31). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: As an elementary school art teacher in the Dallas, Texas area, Stacy Bailey introduced herself to her students with a “get to know your teacher” classroom presentation. The presentation included photos of her friends, dog, family members, and fiancée (now spouse), as reported by The Advocate. After the presentation, a parent complained about the image of her fiancée. Bailey was suspended from her position, assigned to another school, and nearly three years later, has been awarded a $100,000 settlement from the school district, as reported by NBC News. Why the complaint and all of this fall-out? Bailey’s fiancée, now-wife, is a woman. The district denies any wrongdoings.

The district says it received complaints from parents because Bailey was talking about her sexual orientation with children. A parent complained Bailey was “promoting the homosexual agenda,” as reported by the Texas Tribune. If you’re curious about what the picture involved, it reportedly showed Bailey and her now-wife, Julie Vasquez, in Finding Nemo costumes, making funny faces. Bailey allegedly explained Vasquez as her “future wife.” In September 2017, Bailey was placed on administrative leave…

…In 2018, after eight months of suspension, Bailey was assigned to teach at a different school in the district. Working with attorney Jason Smith, she sued the school district in federal court, alleging the district violated her constitutionally protected rights. In October 2019, Judge Sam Lindsay ruled in her favor. The settlement of $100,000 was awarded on Monday.

Kudos to Stacy Baily for overcoming Republican hatred of LGBTQ people. There is nothing unusual about straight teachers talking about their families. For the Republican Reich to allow one and deny the other is a Republican level of hypocrisy. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: A harrowing scene unfolded at the White House on Tuesday night as Donald Trump screamed at Mike Pence for “not praying hard enough” to make Joe Biden lose the Super Tuesday primary contests, sources said.

Witnesses to the vituperative dressing-down of the Vice-President reported that the evening started badly after Trump saw the returns from Virginia, which Biden won handily.

“Mike, you were supposed to tell God to make Sleepy Joe lose,” Trump snapped. “A lot of good your ‘praying’ did.”

Trump’s tirade against Pence grew in ferocity after Biden romped to victory in state after state, a string of victories that Trump blamed squarely on Pence’s inadequate praying efforts.

Dang, Andy! As much as I hate to admit it, I was screaming at pseudo-Christion Vice Fuhrer Mike “The HIV Guy” Pence for the exact same reason! Were it not for Republican prayer incompetence, Bernie would have won! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Four Season & Frankie Valli hits live Sherry, Rag doll, Walk

Damn, ! was young then! Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

BREAKING From NY Times: Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts plans to drop out of the presidential race on Thursday and will inform her staff of her plans later this morning, according to a person close to her, ending a run defined by an avalanche of policy plans that aimed to pull the Democratic Party to the left and appealed to enough voters to make her briefly a front-runner last fall, but that proved unable to translate excitement from elite progressives into backing from the party’s more working-class and diverse base.

Though her support had eroded by Super Tuesday, in her final weeks as a candidate she effectively drove the centrist billionaire, former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, out of the race with debate performances that flashed her evident skills and political potential.

While I recognize the necessity, I have a one word response: Shit! She has a great future. Liz 2024! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–3/3/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:22 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 032020

It’s a very busy day here in the CatBox. I had to prepare and send my grocery order. I spent over an hour on the phone trying to line up the oncologist for my cancer treatments. I think I have, but I still have no results from my PET Scan. I’m hoping for a call tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted. I still have to do the prep work for covering Super Tuesday. I am experimenting with mi diet and found that I’m not plugging the passageway as badly, when I eat a soft solid food and goop together. Yesterday for lunch I had a small portion of ground turkey sandwich. That was borderline. For supper, I had chili goop over rice. That worked great. For breakfast, I had New England clam chowder goop with a bite of saltine with each bite of goop. That worked well too. May Liz and Bernie kick ass today!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:36 (average 5:10): To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Alternet: A former Justice Department attorney compared her service under President Donald Trump as somewhere in between Nazi Germany and “The Apprentice.”

Erica Newland went to work at the Department of Justice in the summer before the 2016 election, and stayed under Trump because she liked her colleagues and believed she could make a difference — but soon learned an uncomfortable truth about herself, reported The Atlantic.

“I guess I know what kind [of German bureaucrat] I would have been,” Newland said, imagining how she might have served in the 1930s. “I would have stayed in the Nazi administration initially and then fled.”

She lasted in Trump’s government until October 2018, when an anti-Semitic extremist killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, and that same week her colleagues at the Office of Legal Counsel were tasked with justifying Trump’s order to refuse all asylum claims at the southern border — mirroring language the gunman had used against foreign “invaders.”

Newland, who is Jewish, recalled an exchange she had with a supervisor who often reminded staffers they worked for the president by saying, “We’re just following orders.

The bureaucrats under Hitler were “just following orders” too. What’s the difference? Fuhrer Hitler’s Nazi Reich was the Third Reich. Criminal Fuhrer Trump’s* Republican Reich is the Fifth Reich. The similarities are undeniable. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is under intense pressure to drop out of the 2020 race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, her nine supporters announced on Monday.

The announcement from Gabbard’s nine followers surprised many Democrats, who had been unaware that the Hawaii congresswoman was still running.

In a conference call after the South Carolina primary, the nine members of Team Tulsi concluded that Gabbard’s path to the nomination had grown “dauntingly narrow.”

“We believe that Tulsi would be an amazing President of the United States,” Harland Dorrinson, a spokesman for the other eight Gabbard supporters, said. “But we have regretfully come to the conclusion that this is not her time.”

Andy, is that a good idea? The nine fools stupid enough to vote for Tulsi should still vote for her. That way, they won’t damage the nation by voting for Bloombarf or criminal Fuhrer Trump*. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): What Bernie Skeptics Need to Know Before Super Tuesday

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, and the Reich on the Right, the evil Republican Reich, in addition to corporate Democrats, have their heads up their asses. 1. Amen! FDR was a democratic socialist. Amen! Trump promised reform and delivered National Socialism. 3. Amen! A Wall Street speculation tax to pay for public needs is far better for America than Republican welfare for billionaires. 4. Amen! Congress will pass progressive legislation, if we get off our asses, flush the Republican Reich, and replace DINOs in the primaries. 5. Amen! Bernie acts younger than Biden. 6. Amen! With criminal Fuhrer Trump* in power, the Democrats will unite behind any candidate, who wins the nomination, as long as they win it fairly! However, if DNC Superdelegates take the nomination from the voters’ choice and land it to another, they will destroy the party and the nation. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Monkees – Last Train To Clarksville 1966

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–2/26/2020

Posted by TomCat at 9:45 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 262020

It’s a tired day here in the CatBox, but I did stomach the last three meals with minimal pain. Tonight is a WWWendy night. Happy Hump Day to all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:25). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Yesterday was soup and crackers. This is the chili and rice.

0226Chili

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: At the last debate, Bernie Sanders defended his supporters while also condemning anyone who exhibited the culture of bullying that many who claim to support him display online. Earlier tonight, reporter Scott Bixby of The Daily Beast reported that one of Bernie Sanders staffers was using a private Twitter account to trash the other Democratic candidates.

Using the account @perma_ben, Ben Mora, a regional field director for Sanders’ campaign based in Michigan, has attacked other Democrats in the field—as well as their family members, surrogates, journalists, and politically active celebrities—in deeply personal terms, mocking their physical appearance, gender, and sexuality, among other things.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mora has tweeted, “looks like her name: pained, chunky, [and] confused origin/purpose.” Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg “is what happens when the therapist botches the conversion,” and his husband, Chasten, Mora predicts, will be “busted for running a meth racket” in 10 years. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a frequent subject of Mora’s private account, is called a “dumb Okie,” “an adult diaper fetishist” who “looks like shit” and who lied about having Native American ancestry “to get into Harvard.”

The thing is, this is a thing. This is exactly what other candidates were complaining about. It’s what many of us experienced online in 2016, and it’s an acknowledged problem by the Sanders campaign despite his disavowal of the attitudes and sentiments expressed by these guys.

So it was encouraging — very encouraging — to hear that Mora had been fired. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the story. Since Mora was fired, the reporter has been doxed and is being harassed.

Kudos to Bernie for canning the SOB. I think Bernie supporters are great, but some Bernie Bros are just stinking Republicans! RESIST!!

From The Borowitz Report: Asserting that his personal interests put him in direct conflict with the interests of the United States of America, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has demanded that Donald Trump recuse himself from all decisions involving the future of the U.S.

Speaking from her office at the Supreme Court, Ginsburg said that Trump’s oft-stated allegiance to himself makes it impossible for him to render unbiased decisions on issues affecting people other than himself.

“Since the United States is populated by three hundred and thirty-one million people who are not him, any decision regarding their fates would, by definition, ensnare Trump in an insoluble conflict of interest,” she said.

Ginsburg enumerated a list of issues about which Trump should immediately recuse himself, including immigration, trade, taxes, the social safety net, women’s reproductive rights, health care, the economy, the military, the environment, “and any other issues related to domestic or foreign policy not listed above.”

Amen Andy! What else is there to say? RESIST!!

From YouTube (Trae Crowder Channel): Liberal Redneck – Super Tuesday Smorgasboard [sic]

As usual, Trae is funny as hell, but realistically, only two choices are best for America: Liz or Bernie! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Turtles – Happy together (video/audio edited & remastered) HQ

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–2/20/2020

Posted by TomCat at 8:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 202020

It’s a tired day here in the CatBox, and I’d like to get an early head start on my nap as Store to Door is delivering groceries some tome this afternoon. Have a Republican flush day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:45 (average 5:34). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

TC from the Inside:

Here are the endoscope photos I promised you.

Barf Bag Alert!!

0220TCguts

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Shortly after the Democratic Presidential debate on Wednesday night, aides to Michael Bloomberg announced that he would spend ten billion dollars to buy an entirely new personality.

Acknowledging that some attributes of the former New York mayor’s new personality have yet to be ironed out, campaign advisers indicated that the eleven-figure outlay would be used to purchase warmth, empathy, and humanity.

Additionally, billions of Bloomberg’s war chest will be used to remove several unappetizing qualities from his current personality, including arrogance, touchiness, and a glaring inability to hide his contempt for others.

Amen, Andy. Straight news! RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump on Wednesday named Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany who quickly antagonized the establishment after arriving in Berlin in 2018, to be the acting director of national intelligence overseeing the nation’s 17 spy agencies.

By choosing Mr. Grenell, who has little experience in intelligence or in running a large bureaucracy, the president signaled that he wants a trusted, aggressive leader atop an intelligence community that he has long viewed with suspicion and at times gone to war against.

As ambassador, Mr. Grenell made public statements that some German officials took as expressing opposition to the government there, an extraordinary intervention into domestic affairs that diplomats typically avoid. He attacked what he called “failed” open-border policies in Germany, which has resettled hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, and criticized Berlin’s stances on Iran, military spending and Chinese investment in global telephone networks. He also expressed an eagerness to empower conservatives throughout Eur

What we have here is an appointment that exemplifies Fuhrer Trump* and the Republican Reich: a Director of National Intelligence, who is completely devoid of intelligence. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Zombies – Time Of The Season HD

Ah… the memories. RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–2/19/2019

Posted by TomCat at 8:43 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 192020

It’s an exhausted day here at the CatBox, so this is my only article today. Yesterday, they started my test an hour early. The nurse inserted my IV in a very small vein, and the pain I felt when the anesthesiologist shot the Jungle Juice was extreme and intense for the minute or two it took to knock me out. I was done and ready to go home at 12:30. WWWendy’s school had told her she could leave an hour early at 2:30. But both of her co-workers called in sick, so they let her go an hour late at 4:30, and she hit rush hour traffic. She did not get to the hospital until after 5:30, and it was after 6:30, before she got me home. None of this was her fault, and I am blessed to have her. I have a very sore throat and raging heartburn. I have a tumor growing where the esophagus meets the stomach, partially blocking the passage. Food gets hung up there, and when it can’t go down, it comes up. The doctor said it looks malignant, but we won’t know for sure until the lab results from the biopsies come back. The pictures he took are sitting on WWWendy’s dashboard. I’ll scan and post them for you tomorrow, as tonight is a WWWendy night. Those are not the results I wanted to get. ARGH! I just can’t catch a break these days. Happy Hump Day to all!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 6:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From The Borowitz Report: In an apparently successful attempt to get under the skin of Donald Trump, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has purchased Greenland from Denmark.

In an official statement released on Tuesday, the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, would not disclose the price that Bloomberg paid for Greenland but indicated that it was an “all-cash offer.”

“Mr. Bloomberg has a lot of money,” Frederiksen added.

News of Bloomberg’s purchase of Greenland reportedly infuriated Trump, who immediately ordered his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to make an offer to buy the Faroe Islands from Denmark.

Andy, is it true that Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten* was so pissed that he went to Nambia for a Hamburder? RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Lawrence & Rachel Question Reports That Barr May Leave DOJ Over Trump Tweets

I so wish Barrf would quit that I can taste it, but if you believe it, we really do need to talk about that bridge I’m selling. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): How Democrats Clean Up the Messes Left by Republicans with Robert Reich

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, and the Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich, is shitting all over America with their welfare for billionaires. This is NOT Trump. The Republican Reich had done this for years, and I have been calling them on it for years too. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Ricky Nelson – Travelin’ Man 1961

I danced the cha cha to this, when I was 13. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–2/14/2020

Posted by TomCat at 8:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 142020

Last night I had an emergency attack of midnight Republicosis. It was so severe that I didn’t make it to the throne. Cleaning the mess took over two hours. Needless to say, I’m very tired. TGIF!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:02 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Warren On Bloomberg & The Practice Of Banks ‘Redlining’ Minority Communities

Bloomberg is blaming the victims of Bankster financing scams against minorities and investors. The Banksters were the criminals. “Redlining” is the practice of drawing red lines around minority (usually black) neighborhoods and denying all applications for real estate loans there. Bloomberg expressed strong support for this racist practice. RESIST!!

From The Borowitz Report: Attorney General William Barr was rushed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Thursday afternoon after the remote-control implant in his brain briefly failed, the White House has confirmed.

White House aides first noticed signs of the implant’s malfunction during an interview Barr gave to ABC News, after which the Attorney General was immediately strapped to a gurney and transported to Walter Reed.

A team of surgeons was able to identify the problem with Barr’s implant after an examination revealed a “low-power issue,” a Walter Reed spokesperson said.

After the surgeons replaced the tiny battery in Barr’s implant, the Attorney General appeared to be recovering well and was able to speak to reporters at his bedside.

Dang Andy, he better get that battery checked regularly! Otherwise, he might puke, when he’s supposed to Barrf! RESIST!!

Also from YouTube (MSNBC Channel): A Quid Pro Quo In Plain Sight?

Did Hakeem Jeffries call it right, or what? I fully agree with the suggestion that, when Trump* and Cuomo meet, Cuomo should wear a wire. How else can he defend against Republican Altered Transcript Syndrome. As for Trump*? Impeach the son of a bitch! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Lesley Gore – You Don’t Own Me (HD)

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–2/13/2020

Posted by TomCat at 8:46 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 132020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. Store to Door is delivering groceries sometime this afternoon/ I’m hurrying to try to catch an early nap. On the plus sided, breakfast stayed inside me. Have a great day.

Jug Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 4:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Willamette Week: A lawsuit filed Feb. 11 by seven tenants against their downtown landlords alleges squalid living conditions in the apartments above a Portland landmark.

The plaintiffs: Seven tenants of the Stewart Hotel at 127 SW Broadway

The defendants: Leon and Pamela Drennan and Pennie Narver, who are associated with the building’s landlord and owner.At issue: The Stewart Hotel, located next to iconic strip joint Mary’s Club, is filled with single-room-occupancy apartments. It’s both a relic of a bygone Portland and a desperately needed home for low-income Portlanders. Monthly rent is about $600.

The claims: The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, documents shockingly unhealthy conditions for Portlanders finding shelter there, even as the hotel’s caretaker has filed for bankruptcy and apparently abandoned all care of it.

The lawsuit lists a horror show of conditions: “holes in walls, cockroach infestations, lack of heat, persistent and potentially dangerous mold, broken washers and dryers, debris in common areas, bed bugs, and inadequate plumbing.”

0213Stewart

I actually had to live there when I became disabled, and could not work, and when it took me four years to get SSDI disability approval and three more years on Central City Concern’s waiting list, after which I moved to the Henry. It’s as bad as they say it is. The landlords are pseudo-Christian Republicans. I hope the tenants succeed in their suit. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In a decision that Donald Trump called “incredibly unfair,” Judge Amy Berman Jackson has sentenced Roger Stone to ten years of house arrest in the home of Senator Susan Collins, of Maine.

As part of the sentence, Senator Collins will be required to live under the same roof as Stone, in Bangor, and insure that he is properly fed, clothed, and exercised until 2030.

The sentence immediately drew howls of protest from Stone, who claimed that living with the ceaselessly waffling Collins would “send me over the edge.”

“Judge, can we revisit the whole prison idea?” Stone begged Jackson.

Dang, Andy! As much as I hate to admit it, I’m on Roger Stone’s side. Having to live with Slithering Susan Collins is clearly cruel and unusual punishment. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Experts Warn Democracies Facing Autocracy: Protect Your Institutions

Masha Gessen could not have been more accurate in her speech. Her list of rules was just as good, as was Snyder’s. I have been comparing the Republican Party with Germany’s National Socialist Party of the 1930s for years. History proves me right every week. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Ventures – Wipe Out

This is the first song I played publicly in a band after I got my Fender Stratocaster. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–2/11/2020

Posted by TomCat at 7:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 112020

I’m afraid I’m having a rough day. I could not keep breakfast down, and my heartburn is screaming. This is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:45 (average 5:20). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From YouTube: Asked who’d be her ‘Mike Pence’, Warren says ‘I already have a dog’

FOMCROTFPIMPLMAO! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: An employee who regularly self-identifies as “troubled” or “concerned” would benefit from seeking a different job, leading workplace experts said on Monday.

Professor Davis Logsdon, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Workplace Health Institute, cited the case of a Maine woman who appeared to undergo a traumatic experience every time she was faced with a difficult decision at work.

“According to her own account, each decision followed an excruciating period of existential torment,” Logsdon said. “Any employee who finds decision-making this harrowing should clearly consider working somewhere else.”

Logsdon said that the woman’s frequent episodes of being troubled and/or concerned usually resulted in an unsatisfactory outcome.

“At the end of her nightmarish deliberation process, she lost the capacity for individual judgment,” he said. “She just went along with what everyone else in the office decided to do, regardless of the harm that such a decision might cause.”

Andy, I fully agree. Slithering Susan Collins [R-ME] needs a new job. Work to clean up all the bullshit she has spewed would give her job security for years! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Beach Boys – Don’t Worry Baby

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

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